What with this whole northern/southern hemisphere thing and opposite seasons, I sometimes grow a bit nostalgic. My mom tells me about all the things that happen and change in and around our home daily, and it’s almost like I’m there. Besides my family and my dogs, there are lots of little things I miss. They’re small things and silly stuff that reminds me of my childhood and growing up on a quiet farm.

Fireflies
My little brother and I used to spend whole evenings chasing fireflies in the fields and around our house. We would get on our bicycles and slowly ride until we spot one. Then came jumping off and frantic scrambling who’ll get to it first. I promise that (almost) no fireflies were hurt in the process. We never used to keep them in jars or anything, watching them and running like mad kids was more than enough.


Hay
Yup – hay! Or should I rather say, the scent of hay. So I grew up on a farm and manual labour was part of our lives. It was nothing bad or too hard, but when there was work around, my brother and I would help out. One of the most common jobs we used to have was to help my grandpa load and unload hay. He had lots of horses and cows, so it all had to be stored for the winter. Oh, and for us to jump on. Nothing like jumping off a barn beam into a nice, fresh batch of hay. Yeah, we would scratch the shit out of ourselves. We would be dusty head-to-toe and have black boogers for a few days, but it was well worth it.


Bicycles
It’s not that I can’t ride a bicycle in South Africa, it’s just not the same. We would ride around the village and every single path that we could find. Some led to more fields and nothing in particular, some led to old abandoned houses and ponds full of frogs. We explored them all, fell off hundreds of times, came home with bloody knees and elbows and we loved every second of it.


Cherries
We had cherry trees all around our house and some are still there. My dad or my grandpa would put up ladders so we could reach all the high branches and each had to bring a bucket full of cherries back. Picking them for jams and juice would be less fun if we didn’t stuff ourselves (worms and all) until we felt ill.



There’s more, but I’ll be happy if you read even half of this. I know that none of those things would be the same even if I went back home right this second, so they’re just stuffed in my ‘nice memories’ draw. I take them out every now and then and they put the biggest happy/sad smile on my face.
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